Minnesota has so many problems... my favorite Congressman Jim Oberstar says Minnesota has become the laughing stock of the Nation because we have so many problems created by Republicans.
So, what better name for a blog then "The Minnesota Problem."
Do you have a problem you think we should be talking about... if so, let me know... Rita

Alan posted this comment in response to a discussion he started in support of what Jimmy Carter said in an interview on National Public Radio. You can read or listen to Carter's interview here before reading Alan's comment:

I don't think Obama or George Mitchell are going to take Carter's position seriously. In order to take Cater's position seriously it would mean that Obama and Mitchell will have to confront the bigotry that Zionism is... I wrote something in a post to a small e-mail list discussing Carter's appearance on Public Television and his statement concerning the use of the phrase "Disaster for Israel," and I am going to post it here, too... something for discussion:

In my opinion Israel is going to end up with a Palestinian/Arab majority no matter if there is a two-state solution or not. As Jimmy Carter says, ethnic cleansing is the only other “solution.”

I think Jimmy Carter is talking to the Zionists in saying that a one-state solution would be a “disaster” for Israel… he is giving them due warning. Notice Carter doesn’t say who this would be a disaster for. Perhaps he does in his book, I haven’t had the chance to read it. I think the assumption is that this “disaster” statement is aimed directly at the Zionists and I am sure these Zionists know this.

There is no way to get the Palestinians and Arabs out of Israel… this is their home… this is the bottom line.

Plus, what no one seems to want to acknowledge is that there are now thousands upon thousands of Palestinian/Jewish and Arab/Jewish families living in Israel.

If Jews and Palestinians and Jews and Arabs can sleep together they certainly can live in peace no matter if there is one state or two states or some kind of United States of the Middle East.

The only obstacle to peace is the Zionists who are filled with hate.

So, no matter single-state, two-state or some kind of multi-state solution, the Zionists are going to have to learn to live in peace without their superior attitudes towards everyone else… or, they might want to think about establishing their Zionist State in Miami Beach because sooner or later they are going to be driven out of Israel.

I think we all need to be clear on what the Zionists are talking about here… it is like the Ku Klux Klan demanding a “White State” here in the United States.

The Zionists, like all other bigots, won’t own up to their bigotry so they complicate this problem by making everyone think that what they want Israel to be is some kind of sovereign Jewish State, while refusing to tell people what they are really after is a Zionist State where they want to push the Palestinians and Arabs out… they don’t want to say this either because it exposes them for the bigots they are.

Any person of partial Jewish heritage who comes from a “mixed marriage” understands the bigotry and sheer meanness of the Zionists.

For political reasons, and maybe for his own personal safety, Jimmy Carter is very careful how he places this question… having to “finesse” in the kind of discussion we have about this issue doesn’t help matters either… In my opinion, we should stop trying to evade the real issue here… if we were talking about the racism of the KKK in attacking a black family moving into a “white neighborhood” we wouldn’t be concerned about offending these people running around with white sheets over their heads… we would be concerned for the black family needing protection. Well, the situation is the same in Israel… talk to any Palestinian/Jewish family and you will soon learn of the hateful way they are treated by these Zionist bigots.

I once asked a Rabbi friend of mine why he didn’t speak out against the evils of Zionism since he knew Zionism was a form of bigotry… and just the thought of him even considering taking this step got him upset… so upset you could see the fear in his face and hear the fright in his voice.

I have seen the same kind of fear in people around me while living in Virginia when I was at a party in a little community called Tappahannock, Virginia and I asked the people hosting the party, “Why the heck do you have a big picture of that racist, bigot Robert E. Lee hanging on your wall?” I could tell lots of people there were thinking the same thing but it was like: wow, how did he dare say that… what’s going to happen to him now?

Bigots are bigots, and once you allow them to go unchallenged you are in for big, big trouble… they then run the entire show… and we saw what kind of show they can put on with their three week long pogrom in Gaza.

These Zionist bigots have gone unchallenged for sixty years now in Israel… Jews like Albert Einstein insisted that Israel should be a place for Jews to live in peace with their Palestinian and Arab neighbors and he didn’t mean neighbors in another country (even though he supported a two-state solution); he was talking about the neighbors living in the house next door, and Jewish/Palestinian husbands and wives sleeping in the same beds… to this day Einstein is hated by the Zionists who want to claim him for his mastery of physics while wiping out any memory of his militant stance against Zionism and all forms of racist bigotry… try to find any school kid in any school in America who knows that Albert Einstein was in his day known as much for his very public stands against bigotry in any form or that he intentionally chose to help integrate his own neighborhood as well as for E=MCsquared and I would bet you would have to travel for months to find even a college student who would know this about Einstein… all because the Zionist bigots have bullied and coerced Einstein to be portrayed as they would have hoped him to have been rather than as he was. This demonstrates not only the power of hate… but what happens when this hate goes unchallenged… everything gets perverted and sets the stage for just what we saw happen with the Zionist killing spree of Palestinians in Gaza.

It is too bad we don’t have a courageous, well known public figure of the stature of Einstein to take these Zionists on… perhaps the moment and the injustice will push such a public figure forward.

Maybe if Jimmy Carter hooks up with Tony Benn in England concerning the problems of the Middle East we might get two such public figures.

I hear the argument that “not all Zionists are bigots.”

This simply isn’t true… its like saying there is a difference between someone running around with a white sheet over their head and someone else who drives down the road and has a bumper sticker with a Confederate flag saying “If we knew what was going to happen we would have picked our own cotton.” Neither one will admit to bigotry… the one with the bumper sticker will tell you I’m no KKK’er.

Zionism is the ideology of hate and as long as these people are calling the shots in Israel there will be never be a solution to this mess. Hang a couple of them for crimes against humanity for what they did in Gaza and you might shut the rest of these bigots up long enough to get a solution with reasonable people involved in the decision-making process.

We have seen in our own country how a few bigots can drag entire communities into campaigns of hate over housing integration and the desegregation of the schools… just think what it would be like if a George Wallace was the president of the United States egging these bigots on… that is what they have in Israel where intentionally mis-educated people and uneducated people are being mis-led by very clever and intentionally deceitful leaders.

If you had it drummed into you day in and day out that your nationality, religion, ethnicity or race made you better than other people you would likely be the same way… and there are now three generations of Israelis who have intentionally been taught that they are better than everyone else… especially better than Palestinians and Arabs… these people think they are normal… they think they are killing Palestinians because they are doing good. To have these bigoted Zionists tell the story they are saving the entire world by killing Palestinian children and their mothers… all the men are naturally “terrorists.”

I think Jimmy Carter has analyzed the situation pretty well but he is looking for a way to say what is really on his mind.

As long as he continues to challenge the effects of Zionism he is doing more than most people and he should be encouraged to continue speaking out very vigorously as he is doing; the main thing with Carter is that he doesn’t allow himself to go backwards… he should get lots of encouragement and suggestions from people so he mulls this entire situation over real good in a way where he feels comfortable moving forward… Carter going forward slow is better than going backwards… plus, unlike most politicians in this country Carter appears to be genuinely honest and sincere; hopefully lots of people will pick up on this.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I guess it just goes to show you that our elected officials and those supporting them don't care about anything. Just being elected, enjoying their high title, and doing nothing, except being rich, lazy bastards. It makes me sick!!

These people running the Democratic Party make me have to puke.

I have received similar letters and phone calls from Democratic Party officials.

I got an e-mail from several of these DFL honchos demanding I remove their names and e-mail addresses from my blog telling me they have had too many people writing them. Who do these people think they are?

All the problems we have in Minnesota and these Democrats have't made an attempt to solve a single problem us poor people are experiencing.

I am glad Alan Maki made this letter public. Maybe if more people would do this we could hold these Democrats to something for a change.

Rita

Thursday, January 22, 2009

An e-mail from Brian Melendez the head of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.

Mr. Melendez who is the head of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party sent me this e-mail:

You take up a cause and you try to push that cause down our throats. What don't you understand? We don't care about your diatribes about Gaza.

You started out demanding justice for casino workers claiming a little smoke is harmful to their health. Let them get another job if they don't like the opportunity we have given them. With you it is always demanding. Your list of demands is never ending.

You started with your casino workers. From there you went to demanding single-payer health care and this has turned into your demand for socialized health care because we didn't give you and your casino workers single-payer as soon as you demanded it.

You harp endlessly about Iraq.

Now you have taken up the cause of Palestinians and you are bashing our best friend and ally, Israel.

No, you aren't satisfied with taking up one of your issues at a time. Now you put them all together like they are related in some way and shove then all down our throats.

We are getting fed up with you. We have a big tent. Apparently our tent is not big enough for you and all your causes. Please pack up your tent and move elsewhere. Might I suggest you take your tent to Gaza.

Just leave us alone and give President Obama a chance.

Brian Melendez, Chair, MNDFL

My response:

Mr. Melendez,

Too many "causes” for you, eh?

Well, how many different promises does the Democratic Party make to voters to get elected, which you conveniently ignore once elected.

For your information, all the "causes" I am involved in are related. These problems, you call them "causes," all stem from this rotten capitalist system.

Might I suggest that you move on... perhaps find yourself a job working in one of your beloved smoke-filled casinos.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Israel has commit crimes against humanity. Its leaders should be brought to trial. Anyone can see the crimes against humanity carried out in Gaza against the Palestinian people. The members of the U.S. House and Senate enabled Israel to carry out these crimes against humanity.

“The place of childhood provides the seal of identity.” This epigram opens the first chapter of Roland Penner’s memoir, “Growing Up ‘Red’ in Winnipeg’s North End.” It holds true even for those of us who grew up only “pink” — i.e. whose parents were CCFers rather than Communists, and who as a result never set foot in the Ukrainian Labour Temple at Pritchard and McGregor. Just how much Winnipeg’s working-class political culture sealed our identities was brought home to me last year when I sent my brother an article that touched on the strike at the Hurtig Fur Company in the early 1930s — during the course of which my father, while on the picket line, had his head split open by a scab. My brother, who was born in 1934, responded: “You know, when I was a little boy I used to get confused about whether the really bad guy’s name was Hurtig or Hitler.”

To be sure, the industrial side of Winnipeg’s history of class conflict makes very little appearance in this memoir — apart from a few sentences that recall Roland standing as a teenager “on the bald prairie with the temperature at about wind chill -50°F, handing out union leaflets” as part of an organizing drive at a plant on the outskirts of Transcona. This is hardly surprising, since the Penner family was preeminent for its involvement on the political side of the labour movement — so much so that on one memorable May Day, after some five thousand paraded along Portage Avenue and Main Street to end up at Market Square in front of the old City Hall, the three speakers who addressed them were Penner’s politically passionate and fiery mother, Rose; his eleven-year-old “child orator” brother, Norman; and, of course, his venerable father, Jacob, the famous Communist alderman for Ward Three. (Jacob Penner was “almost always dressed in a conservatively cut three-piece wool suit, a shirt with a stiff celluloid collar, a firmly knotted woolen tie, a carefully blocked and immaculately clean fedora, and sometimes, over his shoes, spats.”)

The story told here of the Penner family is a fascinating one, from its origins among downwardly mobile Mennonite ancestors who once owned an estate on the west bank of the Dniepr River to Jacob’s “form of marriage without clergy” to a Jewish orphan from Odessa, Rose Shapak. One of the most revealing aspects of north Winnipeg’s ethnic culture is uncovered here, as Jacob the Red, before his election as alderman in 1934 at the age of 54, moves from job to job for some two decades, including as a candy salesman with the help of Rose’s connection to the well-off Galpern family. Just as class conflict tore the Jewish community apart in a strike like the one at Hurtig’s, so did family ties often transcend the sharpest of differences in the class politics of Winnipeg’s North End.

The family anecdotes in this book are so profuse that many of the best are found in the footnotes. One of Rose’s nephews goes to the U.S.S.R. in 1933 and gets swept away five years later in Stalin’s murder machine. One of Jake’s brothers-in-law returns home after a visit to Germany in 1936, and becomes a supporter of the Winnipeg Nazi Party. Shortly after Jake is sent off to an internment camp as a Communist in 1940, sixteen-year-old Roland and his twin sister Ruthie are home alone listening to “Saturday Afternoon at the Met” (while Rose is in Ottawa heading up a delegation of wives petitioning for improvements in the camp’s conditions), and the RCMP come barging in waving a search warrant. As one Mountie moves to turn off the radio, Ruthie screams at him: “In this house no one turns off the opera!”

Indeed, so plentiful are Penner’s family anecdotes that one terrific example, which he told when Norman was honoured at a banquet at the University of Manitoba some two decades ago, is left out of this book. As I recall it (and have often retold it), when Norman marched into the principal’s office of his grade school to complain that the phys-ed instructor was picking on him because he was a Communist, the principal sternly and accusingly said (so everyone in the outer office could hear): “You’re a Communist?!” And then, after closing the door, he whispered, “So am I.”

Penner’s admiration for his parents’ Communist politics is palpable, and he explicitly contrasts this with the way other “red diaper babies” like Jim Laxer and Stan Gray have written disparagingly of their parents’ politics. Quoting Laxer to the effect that truth was “a very slippery commodity” in his home, Roland proudly writes: “That was not our experience…. We asked many questions and Dad and our mother told us what they sincerely believed to be true.” His father remains his “primary inspiration” — a man who “fought for the rights of others at great cost to himself” — and this is why his parents commitment to the “Glowing Dream” forms the title of his memoir. Yet, one might have wished that Roland had offered a more sober reflection on his father’s generation of Canadian Communists, not only with regard to what they knew or didn’t know about Stalin’s crimes in the U.S.S.R. or to the limitations of “democratic centralist” life inside the party, but also to the reformist strategy it pursued in the public arena.

Thus, we learn that Jacob Penner left the Socialist Party of Canada in 1911 because he felt it was too oriented toward raising class consciousness through Marxist education alone. He devoted himself to a life of “unceasing struggle for [the] daily needs and pressing problems” of working people in the belief that this practical activity would raise their consciousness as “the essential feature in the development of a socialist revolution.” Yet, when he died in 1965, aged 85 (having only retired as alderman three years earlier), the Winnipeg Free Press made a point of saying that he was a “political curiosity” who drew much of his support from people “who cared nothing for politics but who admired his efficiency and ability and who believed that he worked for the underdog.” Penner quotes this approvingly, without raising the question of how far this achievement nevertheless stood from the development of the class consciousness needed for supporting socialist revolution, which had been Jake’s original purpose. Would more attention to creative Marxist education have produced a better result? This memoir doesn’t go there, perhaps because Roland, from the time of his own engagement in student politics at the University of Manitoba in the late 1940s, adopted a stance “quite in keeping with my father’s approach to political activity on an issue-by-issue basis.” This approach did not mean that he often lost his bearings on the Left of the political spectrum — far from it. But as the main part of the memoir turns to cover Roland’s own adult political life, this “issue-by-issue” approach is visible all along the way: from his slow drift away from the CP (rather than exiting in flames as his brother did in 1957); to his joining Joe Zuken’s law firm; to his foundational role in the establishment of legal aid in Manitoba; to his almost happenstance decision to join the NDP; to what he calls his “life in government” as attorney general of Manitoba.

The limits of this approach came to a head with his role in the Meech Lake Accord, which he still sees as “a reasonable compromise” on the grounds that, while he agrees with those critics who said that “the separatists would always ask for more,” if the Accord had passed it would have ensured that “their call to break up the country [would have] fallen on less fertile ground.” This is pretty conventional stuff. He reserves his real ire, moreover, for the left critics of the Accord, especially those “many women … influenced by flamboyant statements … by Judy Rebick and the National Action Committee,” who saw the deal as concocted by “men in suits” with the aim of using Quebec’s recognition as a distinct society to override the Charter’s equality provisions (“This is, in my view, nonsense.”) and undermine federal social programs (the likelihood of which he sees as “essentially nil”).

Penner’s decision to side with the pragmatic men in suits against the socialist feminists during the Meech Lake controversy in 1987 was presaged by the controversy over the stand he took in 1983 over the newly opened Morgentaler abortion clinic in Winnipeg. In justifying why as attorney general he could not “authorize a blanket stay of proceedings” with respect to criminal charges against Morgentaler, Penner clearly sees himself as properly following the advice Justice Samuel Freedman gave him when he invited Penner to lunch after his appointment: the Attorney General “must not be political.” But if Penner now admits that his Morgentaler moment “still comes back to haunt me from time to time,” this may be because he knows very well (as he puts it in the memoir in relation to his discussion of the task force on legal aid in the 1970s) that “the legal system itself is so much the product of the establishment it serves that it cannot be turned into the front line for law reform and even more obviously for social transformation.” It most certainly can’t if attorneys general act as if their roles are non-political.

It is impossible to do full justice to Penner’s memoir without going even further over the word limit CD’s editors have allotted me. Suffice to say that this review touches upon only a few aspects of the rich and varied life recounted in this book. I especially enjoyed making the connection between Penner’s many entrepreneurial activities during his Communist boyhood in the 1930s with his “life as an impressario,” when he ran the Co-op Bookstore in the late 1950s and was responsible for bringing Pete Seeger and Odetta, among many others, to sing before Winnipeg audiences.

For me, at least, this enjoyable read was enhanced by being able to catch Penner out on such errors as telling us that Lenin “famously said that communism equals socialism plus electric power” (he actually said “soviets and electric power”). Or the misnumbering of the Chapter Two endnotes, so that the citation for the homage Penner pays to the great Fritz Hansen, the American running back who led the Blue Bombers to their first Grey Cup in 1935, amusingly offers sources to the On to Ottawa Trek of that year. The only unfortunate result of this misnumbering is that we never learn who actually coined that wise phrase: “The place of childhood provides the seal of identity.”

This article was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 and is filed under Canadian Dimension Magazine, Reviews.

Responses to “North Winnipeg’s Seal of Identity”

Comment by Alan L. Maki, writing from United States on January 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am:

Leo Panitch’s review of “A Glowing Dream: A Memoir” itself is food for thought, dialogue, discussion and debate as much as is Roland Penner’s excellent book, which I would strongly recommend to every worker to read and study.

Panitch finds problems with Jacob Penner’s approach towards politics and assumes that Marxist education was not simultaneously taking place with the excellent work Jacob Penner did in serving working people on the Winnipeg City Council.

Having personally known many of those in Jacob Penner’s Communist Party circle, I know that this contention simply is not accurate.

And I believe that where Panitch is inaccurate here is the very crux of what is missing in working class struggles in Canada and the United States today, which is holding back the struggle of the working class for real power: social, political and economic; the struggle for socialism— the only alternative to this failed capitalist system.

What Panitch fails to understand is the way the Communist Party works in a collective way… while Panitch’s contention that Jacob Penner paid too little attention to Marxist education of the working class— a very dubious contention at best seeing as how Jacob Penner was the longest serving Communist elected public official in Canada, and perhaps the world— it is hard to believe that Panitch’s assessment is accurate that there was a lack of socialist/Marxist education taking place. How a Communist repeatedly gets elected and re-elected when there is a powerful corrupt web of capitalism spun all around him creating such a hostile environment would then have to be explained… an explanation Leo Panitch never broaches… not everything he hasn’t broached can be explained away as not being provided more space by Canadian Dimension since Panitch has had ample opportunity to do this elsewhere; and he has not.

Panitch forgets, or intentionally omits, the role of the Communist Party Club. Jacob Penner always “had his back covered” by a very powerful Communist movement consisting of very important Communist Party clubs in Manitoba which were more than a little responsible for his repeated re-election campaigns because of the “collective” way these Communist Party clubs operate as the “think-tanks” and “action centers” of the working class and people’s movements constantly stressing that all the various movements for democracy, peace, social and economic justice and for socialism need to work together in unity.

I have noticed that failure to understand the all-important role of Communist parties by Panitch in many of his other writings, too; which boils down to not understanding the very important and significant role these Communist Party Clubs play in winning the day to day struggles working people are constantly embroiled in as a matter to survive the obstacles and problems created by a capitalist social, economic and political system.

Like in this current book review, Panitch even writes about the Communist Manifest but fails to understand that Marx and Engels in writing this brief pamphlet did so with the intent of encouraging workers to build Communist Parties to advance their demands for reforms AND winning social, economic and political power.

There is all kinds of ample evidence that Jacob Penner and his comrades and friends understood very well “What needs to be done?” And they did what needed to be done— on all fronts, from education to activism.

The real questions Leo Panitch might want to ponder is why Jacob Penner and the Communist Party in Winnipeg did so well while in most other places in North America the working class movement did not fare as well?

A big part of the answer to this question lies in attacks on the Communist Party by the government (which Jacob Penner and the Winnipeg Communists and their friends and allies so successfully fought back) and the attacks on the Communist Party from the right and ultra-left in the working class movement (again, attacks which Jacob Penner and the Winnipeg communists struggled against so successfully).

And Joe Zuken’s campaigns successfully built on all of this.

How and why this powerful Communist movement in Winnipeg lost momentum and suffered losses should be the topic of a forum with the proceedings published in another book… it would be very interesting to see if Leo Panitch’s ideas as to his “critique” (or not so thinly veiled attack on the role and objectives of Communist Parties) hold any water when placed side-by-side with the Communist perspective in all of this.

I really think we need to be asking what has held back the working class movements from achieving what Jacob Penner and his comrades and friends achieved not finding excuses to write them off because in these troubled times, there is not only a Canadian dimension to what these working class Communist Party activists achieved, there is something for all working class activists from throughout North America and the rest of the world to learn from… I find it rather ironic that many people who adhere and cling to Leo Panitch’s perspective regarding the Soviet Union and other socialist countries who found their own way to power and to hold on to that power which they so despise, now like to take cheap pot shots at the very man and the Communist Party he was a member of which climbed towards working class power so successfully in the electoral arena.

Which, also, begs the question: If Canada and the U.S.A. were the bastions of democracy capitalist politicians claim them to be; why then has the policy towards allowing Communists to freely participate in the political lives of these two countries been so restricted— and, I think I am being very charitable in using the term “restricted” when political suppression and repression are more appropriate.

If Leo Panitch would like to participate in an organized dialogue on this question concerning the legacy of the role of the Communist Party clubs I would be happy to participate, too.

Jacob Penner and Winnipeg Communists are not the only example of the success of Communist Party Clubs and how they combined electoral work with other facets of class struggle work— merely the best; an example which many working class activists today have a right to know about… just as working class activists today have a right to know about how Communists like Lyle Dotzert led the struggle to organize Ford in Windsor and his comrades like Phil Raymond, Nadia Barkan, Bob Travis, Bud Simons and Wyndham Mortimer across the river— south of the border— led the struggles to organize the Big Three and then elected the legendary working class activist and leader Coleman Young to public office… in order to know and understand this aspect of the working class struggle and history might make the difference as to whether the working class wins or loses the looming class conflict ahead.

The working class made numerous advances with Communist Parties in the lead… an historic fact that no amount of twisting and misinformation can erase— obscure, yes— but not erase because history as what it is.

Communists have made plenty of mistakes just like anyone else; but, the so-called errors attributed to us here simply are not correct.

There is this “movement” on the part of a section of the North American left which seeks to want to put everything from 20th Century Communism and socialism behind us as if it was all misguided and bad when nothing could be further from the truth.

Roland Penner’s excellent book provides us with aspects of working class history some people would rather just forget… just like they would like to forget Jacob Penner, Lyle Dotzert, Phil Raymond, Nadia Barkan (in Nadia’s case, the “historians” even give her the wrong name!)… but, forgetting primary aspects of history is not the same as these struggles and their leaders— with the Communist Parties at the forefront— being forgotten… or intentionally maligned as Leo Panitch does, and continues doing.

Recently Howard Zinn engaged in similar distortion on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” when he stated:

“No, I was really gratified when Obama called for “Let’s tax the rich more, and let’s tax the poor and middle class less.” And they said, “That’s socialism.” And I thought, “Whoa! I’m happy to hear that. Finally, socialism is getting a good name.” You know, socialism has been given bad names, you know, Stalin and all those socialists, so-called socialists. They weren’t really socialist, but, you know, they called themselves socialist. But they weren’t really, you see. And so, socialism got a bad name. It used to have a really good name. Here in the United States, the beginning of the twentieth century, before there was a Soviet Union to spoil it, you see, socialism had a good name. Millions of people in the United States read socialist newspapers. They elected socialist members of Congress and socialist members of state legislatures. You know, there were like fourteen socialist chapters in Oklahoma. Really. I mean, you know, socialism—who stood for socialism? Eugene Debs, Helen Keller, Emma Goldman, Clarence Darrow, Jack London, Upton Sinclair. Yeah, socialism had a good name. It needs to be restored.”

And Sam Webb, the revisionist “leader” of the CPUSA goes even further than Panitch or Zinn in saying he wants nothing at all to do with 20th Century socialism.

I find it very strange that all these attacks of a similar nature come at a time when the working class needs stronger Communist Parties than ever before… and slanting history to suit one’s own biased perspectives will not aid in building a winning working class fight-back as this rotten capitalist system collapses by the day from the time the bell rings on Wall Street until another plant is shut down, both throwing workers out into the streets as if they are merely disposable items like baby diapers.

Class is a dirty word in that it gets close to the truth about who governs and for whose benefit.

– Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti is an internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. He is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

In the land of those who think they’re free and the home of savage capitalism, class is indeed a dirty word. Remember, we’re a nation of Joe the Plumbers. If we just work hard enough and fend off those socialist vampires who want to suck us dry by redistributing our hard-earned wealth, we can all be financial successes. And if you’re a faux-progressive presidential candidate—like Obama, you’re doomed to political perdition unless you sign a blood oath disavowing your ties to socialism.

Yet there are a few political analysts and academics who dare to blaspheme against capitalism, which is the “God” this benighted land truly worships—despite the disgustingly hypocritical veneer of faux Christianity. Remember that Michael Parenti has one of the filthiest mouths you’ll ever hear. He dares to repeatedly spew profane diatribes against capitalism, the sacrosanct basis for our precious American Way of Life. Parenti has the chutzpah to derisively attack our system, which we all know is the best that’s ever been (or will be), by asserting that there are divisions amongst US Americans based on socioeconomic standing. And worst of all? He uses the “C” word! Somebody needs to give his mouth a good cleansing with a bar of Dial!

Parenti recently answered a few questions Jason Miller threw his way. Let’s see how much further he traveled on the road to perdition…

Jason Miller: You’re one of the best kept secrets of the “American Left” (ridiculously marginalized and small in number as we are). Why is it that despite your brilliant critiques, particularly of bourgeois revisionist history, you remain relatively obscure even amongst the more radical segment of the US population?

Michael Parenti: It’s really not all that bad. People do describe me as “widely acclaimed” and “internationally known” etc. and I do reach varied audiences in North America and abroad with my writings, lectures, and interviews. But it is true that there are sectarian or small minded elements on the left – including some very prominent figures – who are quiet practitioners of McCarthyism in that they exclude or try to isolate anyone who (a) places a strong emphasis on the realities of class power (b) occasionally uses a Marxist analysis or (c) finds some things of value in existing socialist societies that are worthy of being preserved, such as human services, guaranteed right to a job, free education, free medical care, affordable housing for all, etc. These societies, now mostly defunct, have been deemed by most of the left as worthy of nothing but a constant unremitting denunciation.

JM: Do you think the bourgeoisie has begun demonizing environmentalists and animal rights advocates because they perceive us to be a legitimate threat to the system, is the Green Scare simply another aspect of the divide and conquer tactic, do animal and Earth exploiters wield that much power within the system, is it a combination of these, or something more?

MP: The purveyors of free-market global capitalism believe that they have a right to plunder the remaining natural resources of this planet as they choose. Anyone who challenges their agenda is to be subjected to whatever misrepresentation and calumny that serves the free market corporate agenda.

JM: How has the capitalist class in the US been so successful at convincing the masses that we live in a “classless society” and etching a cultural standard in granite that it is taboo to discuss class issues?

MP: Through control of the universe of discourse, including the media, the professions, the universities, the publishing industry, many of the churches, the consumer society, the job market, and even the very socialization of our children and the prefiguring of our own perceptions, the ruling interests are able to exercise a prevailing ideological control that excludes any reasoned critique of the dominant paradigm. Class is a dirty word in that it gets close to the truth about who governs and for whose benefit.

JM: What are your thoughts on Obama and what change we may see under his presidency?

MP: I greeted Obama’s electoral victory with very little enthusiasm but much relief that the lying slime-bag right-wing John McCain was defeated. I think Obama will be another Bill Clinton, perhaps not as bad. Some people see his accession to the White House as a great historic victory for African Americans and for democracy. But I am not all that impressed. When the victory is extended into social democratic policies that have a salutary effect on millions of struggling impoverished African-Americans and other working poor, then I’ll start dancing in the streets.

JM: Prior to Obama’s election, a number of radical thinkers posited that the US was in a pre-revolutionary stage. What impact do you think the Obama administration will have on the potential of consciousness, anger, and social unrest reaching critical mass amongst the working class in the US in the near future? Or better yet, are you even optimistic that the American people will catch fire and revolt against our wretchedly rapacious and imperialistic system?

MP: I do not think we are entering a pre-revolutionary stage. However political struggle can be a surprising phenomenon emerging with great democratic force and sudden movement in the most unexpected ways. We are approaching an economic crisis of momentous scope. The radical reactions may not be all that progressive and rational. The unfortunate thing about corporate capitalism is that it is often advantaged by the very wretched conditions it itself creates. I am hoping that the social groups that have been activated by Obama’s campaign will not go to sleep and will not let up the pressure for progressive change.

JM: What do you say to critics who assert that socialism is a utopian dream in the abstract and a nightmare in reality?

MP: Your question is a paraphrase of the one I posed in my book, Democracy for the Few. “Is socialism not just a dream in theory and a nightmare in practice?” In response I pointed out that the features which make life livable in capitalist society are mostly socialistic in practice, including human services, infrastructure development, environmental protections, and even many technological advances that are funded or even created by government sources.

JM: With Castro hanging in there and now Chavez, Morales, Correa, and Ortega in place, to what extent do you think socialism will continue to expand and flourish in Latin America?

MP: It is not likely that the reforms in Latin America will really lead to socialism but at least to some gains for the most desperately oppressed.

JM: Some argue that there is a “third way” that represents a better alternative to capitalism than socialism. Your thoughts?

MP: Maybe they are referring to the social democracy that is found in some Western European countries that provide decent human services and better regulation of corporate doings. But even these social democracies are under attack and face rollback. Look at what has happened to Britain.

Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor. He welcomes constructive correspondence at JMiller@bestcyrano. org or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner. Read other articles by Jason, or visit Jason's website.

This article was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 8:00am and is filed under Capitalism, Interview. ShareThis

Howard Zinn on the Amy Goodman show:

“No, I was really gratified when Obama called for “Let’s tax the

rich more, and let’s tax the poor and middle class less.” And they

said, “That’s socialism.” And I thought, “Whoa! I’m happy to hear

that. Finally, socialism is getting a good name.” You know, socialism has

been given bad names, you know, Stalin and all those socialists, so-called

socialists. They weren’t really socialist, but, you know, they called

themselves socialist. But they weren’t really, you see. And so, socialism

got a bad name. It used to have a really good name. Here in the United

States, the beginning of the twentieth century, before there was a Soviet

Union to spoil it, you see, socialism had a good name. Millions of people

in the United States read socialist newspapers. They elected socialist

members of Congress and socialist members of state legislatures. You know,

there were like fourteen socialist chapters in Oklahoma. Really. I mean,

Monday, January 5, 2009

Minnesota’s politicians have reneged on their repeated pre-election promises for health care reform for the last 60 years.

Quite frankly, we are fed up with this foot-dragging amid all kinds of phony schemes they have concocted in the name of reform which seek to put the burden of health care costs on the backs of the working class instead of where the primary burden belongs--- on those who profit from the labor of working people.

We thought we would help guide Minnesota politicians along in their efforts to achieve health care reform.

Health care is a human right.

Introducing a real solution to the present health care mess created by a profit driven system which places profits before the health care needs of people.

People before profits.

A proposal for real health care reform legislation from the working people of Minnesota.

From here on in this Act of the Minnesota Legislature shall be known as the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

The intent of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be to provide Minnesotans with a world-class public health care system.

The sole purpose of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be to keep people healthy and get them well when sick.

The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall provide no-fee/no-premium universal health care for every single person present in Minnesota.

The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall provide prenatal to burial health care which shall include, but not be limited to: eyes, dental, mental and general health care including any prescribed medications and shall include any physician directed physical therapy; home health care and nursing home care shall be included along with any hospitalization and the care associated with any hospital stay.

The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall include public financing of the complete Health Care System.

The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be publicly administered with the only goals and objectives explicitly limited to providing Minnesotans with health care in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

All those employed in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be public employees protected under the terms of one collectively bargained labor-management agreement between the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System and the Union freely chosen by majority vote of the members in accordance with the all labor laws and protections.

All and any discrimination in employment and in receiving health care under the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be prohibited--- including, but not limited to, discrimination based on: race, sex, age, class, religious and political beliefs.

All health care professionals, from administrators and staff to doctors and nurses employed in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall receive free education and training with any required subsidies through university and for any required periodic training associated with their employment and delivery of health care.

No restrictions shall be placed on any private health care providers who shall be free to compete with the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

Anyone is free to avail themselves of private health care for which they shall be liable for all payments except when required health care may not be available through the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

The Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be paid for thusly:

A payroll tax on all workers which shall not exceed more than four-percent of income. Any worker making less than what the United States Department of Labor and its Bureau of Labor Statistics determines to be a real living income based upon cost of living factors shall be assessed one-percent of income and during periods of unemployment and/or income below the requirement no tax shall be collected.

Employers will be assessed a flat fee based upon the number of employees. One to ten employees: $600.00 per month. Eleven to thirty employees $650.00 per month. Thirty-one to eighty employees $750.00 per month. Eighty-one to two-hundred employees $800.00 per month. Over 201 employees, employers shall be required to pay $900.00 per month. These figures shall be base tax-rates subject to yearly adjustments to be determined by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

If additional revenue is required to finance the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System; this revenue shall be raised by specially designated increases in the taconite tax and stumpage fees from the mining and forestry industries respectively.

No funds collected for the purpose of funding the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be used for any other purpose.

All funds presently designated for any other health care programs, whether local, state or federal shall herein after be designated for the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

All present local, state and federal health care programs operating in Minnesota shall be phased-into and merged into the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System.

Any and all health care education provided by public institutions shall be administered with the objective and goal of providing the required support for the success of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System with any duplication between colleges and universities to cease when it is possible to combine these educational services with the goal being to cut costs while providing the best possible training to maintain world class standards of health care for all Minnesotans.

Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be appointed by a specially created Committee of Minnesota Legislators with the inclusion of one representative of the public, one representative from organized labor, one representative from the union representing employees of the Health Care System and one representative from business.

In order to initially secure the required staff for the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System all public university and college administrators together with all Administrators of any and all government programs in Minnesota shall have their pay and/or salaries cut by thirty percent to subsidize the training and education of the professional staff from doctors to nurses as required. This pay-cut shall remain in effect until the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is fully staffed and therein after the responsibility of free education in the health care field shall be the responsibility of the State of Minnesota.

ALL children and their families in Minnesota shall be informed that a free education through university/college will be provide to any student meeting minimum required grade standards established by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System provided they agree to work in the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System for salaries not to exceed base pay of $65,000.00 a year for no less than 12 years; this salary shall include, but not be limited to, doctors and all Administrators. A special effort shall be made to recruit students from Indian Reservations and working class communities in rural and urban areas based upon the assumption that these students will be the most caring for those in the communities they come from. The pay schedule shall be modified on a yearly basis in consideration of cost-of-living factors as scientifically calculated by the United States Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The responsibility for placing the required number of employees and personnel in local communities shall be determined by the Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System based solely upon the health care requirements of the Community with providing Minnesotans with a world class health care System always in mind.

Public education centering on keeping people healthy shall be a primary responsibility of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System for two reasons:

Healthy people are a far less burden on the health care system;

To be healthy is a human right.

The Administrators of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System shall be empowered to order employers (public and private) to remedy any and all problems related to human health. The cost and expense of correcting any and all problems shall be the responsibility of the Employer. All workers, without fear of recrimination, shall be educated and encouraged to report all health related concerns in their place of employment and in the communities where they reside.

Whenever possible, people will be allowed to have their choice of doctors; however, the primary goal of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide everyone with quality health care through fully trained and caring health care professionals.

The intent of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide all Minnesotans a universal health care system where health care is once and for all placed over and above the profit system. The sole objective of the Jourdain-Perpich-Olson-Benson Public Health Care System is to provide people with health care; not the health care industry with profits.

Roger Jourdain was the long-time serving Chairman of the Red Lake Nation who pioneered bringing health care to a community of Native American people who previous to his advocacy of health care as a human right had no access to heath care.

Rudy Perpich was the Governor of Minnesota who proposed increasing the taconite tax to provide better government for people, which included adequate health care.

Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson were the socialist governors of Minnesota who were among the first to advocate for a comprehensive, all-inclusive public health care system.

The time has come for Minnesotans to boldly move forward in the area of health care reform based upon progressive Minnesota traditions.

Minnesotans have soundly rejected the for profit health care system, and at every opportunity Minnesotans have articulated their desire for what is embodied in the Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act.

The time has come for the democratic will of the majority of Minnesotans to prevail when it comes to health care reform.

Consideration for similar national health care reform should be brought forward as part of the country-wide discussions now underway.

We propose that a national health care act be brought forward based upon the Roger Jourdain – Rudy Perpich – Floyd B. Olson – Elmer A. Benson Memorial Public Health Care System Act.

We further propose that this national health care act become known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt – Frances Perkins National Health Care Act; so named in the memory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, who courageously stood up to the American Medical Association and the wealthy few in defense of a public health care program serving the health care needs of the American people to be included as part of the “New Deal.”

Any country spending trillions of dollars on wars and death and destruction can meet the health care needs of its citizens--- it really is as simple as this.

After Downing Street features essay by Alan Maki

Michael Parenti on the Obama victory

I greeted Obama’s electoral victory with very little enthusiasm but much relief that the lying slime-bag right-wing John McCain was defeated. I think Obama will be another Bill Clinton, perhaps not as bad. Some people see his accession to the White House as a great historic victory for African Americans and for democracy. But I am not all that impressed. When the victory is extended into social democratic policies that have a salutary effect on millions of struggling impoverished African-Americans and other working poor, then I’ll start dancing in the streets.

I do not think we are entering a pre-revolutionary stage. However political struggle can be a surprising phenomenon emerging with great democratic force and sudden movement in the most unexpected ways. We are approaching an economic crisis of momentous scope. The radical reactions may not be all that progressive and rational. The unfortunate thing about corporate capitalism is that it is often advantaged by the very wretched conditions it itself creates. I am hoping that the social groups that have been activated by Obama’s campaign will not go to sleep and will not let up the pressure for progressive change.

Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice issue statement on 2008 Elections

Raul Reyes... heroic leader of the Columbian resistance

Hire A Writing Pro

If you have a need, I may be able to provide professional writing skills for your Web site or blog. Does the text on your site need editing for grammar and clarity? Perhaps this is the only obstacle to keeping your site updated. For a reasonable rate, I can copyedit the text on your site and help you bring it up to date.

Are you struggling to write a thesis or dissertation without complete confidence in your grammar skills? With approval from your faculty advisor, I can help you correct errors and improve your written expression of ideas.

About Me

I love the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. Sometimes I wish it was a little more labor and a lot less business. But,what the heck... it is all we got for now. I like to walk the North Shore and toss a few rocks into Lake Superior.

My Blog List

Communists for Peace

A Minnesota "Out House"

Contact Members of the Minnesota Democratic State Central Committee with your concerns

A special "Thank you" to the office staff of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party for making this list available for your use. A very special "thanks" to the fine people in Congressman Jim Oberstar's office who made the arrangement to help me get this information.

Remember. If you have a problem or concern these people want to hear from you. They want to hear from you often.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, "The wheel squeaking the loudest gets the grease."